World of Tanks Dev to Invest $10 Million into eSports

During a press conference in Warsaw, Poland, World of Tanks studio Wargaming proclaimed that it has plans to invest $10 million into expanding its free-to-play title’s presence in the eSports scene in 2014.

As reported by Games Industry, Wargaming’s CEO Victor Kisyli outlined the studio’s dedicated team that are currently adapting World of Tanks for eSports, having first invested $8 million to such a development back in 2013, and confirmed that Wargaming will increase its efforts for said team in the coming year with an further investment of $10 million.

“With our eSports team we founded a company within the company,” he said during the panel. “They take care not only about game features to cater to spectators, but also about the physical organisation of the tournaments.

In the beginning, it was not so much us who wanted to introduce World of Tanks to eSports, it was the players themselves who wanted to be more competitive.”

Also during the panel, Kisyli described that eSport interest for World of Tanks increased exponentially over the past two years. According to Games Industry, back in 2012, 30,000 players took part in 120 tournaments; a year later, in 2013, World of Tanks’ competitive scene increased to 200,000 players and more than 1,000 tournaments.

World of Tanksreleased globally on Xbox 360 in early January, and a recent update has increased the game’s physics engine, including building and tank destruction.